DEVELOPING A CONFIDENT TRADING MINDSET

16 เม.ย. 2023

✳️ One of the key ingredients to successful trading is confidence, but many people lack it. Why? I'll be talking about this in this post. Having a plan is the fundamental cornerstone of confidence. Fear and hesitation are caused when you are unsure about what to do. I'm surprised by how many traders just work without a defined strategy. Your trading plan should be written down as the first phase. It should be as simple as, "If A occurs, I will do B; if B does not occur, I will do C." You must eliminate every assumption. This is the strength of pre-established rules, and after they have been tested and proven, they will support your future confidence and discipline.

✳️ Backtesting and optimization of the system
You won't have any confidence moving forward if you haven't tested your plan, established its historical viability, and optimized it to the best of your ability using the data. This is because you need to know what you're doing and what to anticipate. Your confidence will be built on the basis of a strategy's study, testing, and optimization steps. By missing this step, you are demonstrating a lack of dedication to your trading business and, thus, are not treating it like a business. Starting with the company comparison. Would you launch a company and sell a random product before spending the time and effort to demonstrate its viability? Obviously not. And it needs to be similar to trading. If you don't test, you simply don't want it badly enough, and I encourage you to stop right away. There is no fast way to success; you must be prepared to put in the time to test, develop, and comprehend all of the system's elements.

✳️ The source of confidence is the outcome
Results provide extra confidence, so you must see your strategy in action before you can follow it. As a result, you must be able to stick to your method until you have a large enough sample size to notice the benefits. You must proceed gently and progressively raise your exposure as your method establishes itself. This is one way to build confidence, but how will you get there if you give up after a couple of losses, particularly big losses, all because you got into live trading too much early on?

So, this is an important one thing: you must let the strategy show you that it works. As the method works, gradually increase the exposure. You want to start live trading with the smallest amount affordable. My advice is to increase up in increments of 0.05% 0.10% 0.25% 0.5% 0.7% every time the technique produces X- Amount, for example, 10%, and so on until you find the risk that you are most comfortable with trading. Remember that the ultimate amount should be one that you can afford to lose no matter how much you lost. You should be able to get a good night's sleep. Confidence is gained gradually through testing and allowing the system to give proof, as well as gradually increasing exposure to your acceptable risk limit. Taking the right risk that will not cause you feelings of anxiety is critical to maintaining your confidence. If you lose 50% of the amount you have in a single losing trade, you're unlikely to be very confident, and if you're diving into trading with full risk, it's an indication of a lack of emotional control and an attempt to speed up the process. You must ask yourself why. And how badly do you want to be a trader? Because failing to complete the homework indicates a lack of dedication.

✳️ Evidence gives you confidence in trading
Starting into trading with no past performance or live data is one of the main reasons most people lack confidence. However, if you go in with a well-researched and tested plan, you will have something to refer to in your live trade. Are you experiencing a drawdown? So, what does my data indicate? Oh, that's completely typical. Okay, keep going. Instead of rejecting the plan or altering the system, as 95% of people do. Instead, you are now confidently pushing forward because you have the data and statistics to back you up. Once you have the statistics, you will have confidence, and when you are going through a difficult period, such as a drawdown, you will only have to ask yourself these two questions.

▶️ Am I sticking to the trading plan?
▶️ Am I controlling my risk?

If you can respond yes to both questions, you are safe. Continue your trading journey.